Draft Cycle Safety Action Plan

Overview

London’s streets and the way we travel on them are changing. More and more Londoners are seeing the benefits of taking to two wheels. The Mayor’s Vision for Cycling in London, which was published last year, sets out a vast programme of work. This is enabled by £913m of investment which aims to transform the experience of cycling in the Capital.

We are committed to increasing the number of cycling trips in the Capital by 400 per cent by 2026. The draft Cycle Safety Action Plan (CSAP) therefore sets out a strategy for improving the safety of cyclists in London.

Background

A major programme of infrastructure work is underway or planned in the near future. This includes the new Cycle Superhighways, a network of new backstreet Quietways, a central London grid of linked cycle routes, and work to target some of the worst junctions for cycling in London and to improve their safety.

Safety is at the core of this work. Making streets safer for the bike is one of four key outcomes of the Cycling Vision. It supports the wider aims of Safe Streets for London, the Mayor’s Road Safety Action Plan for London, to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on London’s roads by 40 per cent by 2020 and work towards roads free from death and serious injury.

Meeting this casualty reduction target is a top priority for both the Mayor and Transport for London (TfL). To do so, we are committed on focusing on the most vulnerable road users, including cyclists. In 2013, 489 cyclists were killed or seriously injured (KSI) on London’s roads. This equates to one in five of all KSI casualties that year.

This new draft Cycle Safety Action Plan builds on the original, published in 2010, as well as the Cycling Vision and Safe Streets for London. This new draft Plan focuses on understanding the risks and challenges faced by cyclists on London’s roads and uses an intelligence-led approach to identify the most effective and significant interventions.

Looking ahead

The draft Cycle Safety Action Plan, compiled by TfL working with key stakeholders, will look to address the concerns and challenges faced by cyclists across London, helping to make London a place where cyclists truly feel they belong and are safe.

The draft plan outlines 32 key actions which will directly target the key factors in collisions and help further reduce cyclist casualties across London. The actions include:

Together with partners, TfL will improve the safety of cyclists around lorries by trialling quiet vehicle technology to expand off-peak delivery, separating cycles from lorries in rush hour, working with industry to develop for the first time new front under run protection, and working with operators to develop and test better designs for side guards.

TfL will lobby vehicle manufacturers and representative organisations to make vehicles safer for cyclists by pushing for Autonomous Emergency Braking Systems to be fitted to all new cars as standard, and for a specific new European New Car Assessment Programme (EuroNCAP) safety rating for cars’ impact protection of cyclists and for EuroNCAP to extend its star score ratings to include buses and HGVs for non-occupant safety.

TfL will lobby the Department for Transport to emphasise the prominence of cycling and the safety of cyclists and other vulnerable road users by identifying improvements in the Highway Code and better aligning it with advice from National Standards (Bikeability) training.

Together with London boroughs, TfL will double the number of adult cyclists receiving advanced safety skills training.

In partnership with the Metropolitan Police Service and City of London Police, TfL will double the number of Exchanging Places events aimed at cyclists to 100 per year.